Hidden
by Meilan Firaga
Summary: A little chapter ficcy I'm working on. Yuffie+Reno. Please review! I'm desperate!
1. Default Chapter

_Disclaimer: I only own a pom-pom._

**Hidden**

_I almost feel low doing this.  Reno thought as he snuck through Yuffie's bedroom window.  __Almost.  The room was dark and completely empty of people or signs of life.  Yuffie was currently in Costa Del Sol in a meeting with tourism delegates.  Or at least that's what Rude found on the Wutai royal computer system.  __He better be right.  Reno mumbled in his head as he began to search the room.  __I've had way too many charges in Wutai as it is.  _

            His mission was to find what he could about the 'princess.'  He didn't really care who had hired the Turks for the job, but he was almost more than willing to find dirt on that little pest.  He stepped carefully to the low set desk and slid open the side drawer.  It was full of junk.  Materia records and experiment journals.  He closed the drawer.  The client had no interest in her little 'experiments,' he was looking for something that had to do with Wutai.  Reno opened the top middle drawer.  There were only two books sitting inside.  One was a small hardback book with the word 'Diary' in silver letters.  Reno raised an eyebrow.  That could be interesting.  He tried the lock.  No use.  It took a pendant key, and Yuffie was probably wearing that pendant.  He replaced the book and picked up the larger one.  It was leather-bound and pretty big.  Reno slid his hand under the leather strap that held it together and pulled the book open. 

            It was a sketchpad.  Reno's eyes widened.  The first picture was of Marlene, Barret's daughter.  The small girl was asleep and covered by a blanket.  It looked exactly like her.  A nearly flawless black-and-white sketch.  Reno scanned the page for a signature.  It was Yuffie's.  He started to flip through the pages.  Every picture was of some one he knew, and every one looked just like the person it was of.  He stopped on one page and stared.  It was him.  It was a picture of him on Grouchoon, sitting on a rock at sunset with his back to Yuffie.  He remembered that day.  It was the day they left the planet.  He had been tired as the twin suns set below the horizon and had set on a rock at the edge of a cliff and slumped over with his head in his left hand.  Yuffie had drawn him perfectly, right down to the exhausted slope of his shoulders.

            Reno couldn't believe how good the picture was.  As far as he was concerned, Yuffie was just a pest with no major talents other than pick-pocketing, but this book told him otherwise.  He finally tore his eyes away from the sketch and flipped the pages once again.  _Oh God, he thought as he looked over the next one.  It was another one of him.  He was asleep in the chair in his office.  His feet were propped up on the side table and his ponytail was thrown over his shoulder.  __When could she have possibly done this?  He checked for a date.  There wasn't one, but there was a title.  Daydreams.  He grinned.  __Maybe she just thought it up.  Then, his grin faded.  __But that would mean that she is really good.  His mind flashed back to the day someone tried to hire him to kill Barret.  He had been asleep when Yuffie came in.  __She must have a photographic memory._

            He turned the page.  The next picture was of Cloud and Tifa dancing at their wedding.  Reno scanned it and flipped it over.  Another picture of him was on the following page.  He was in the cell at Vanguard.  Asleep.  Reno was tempted to take the sketchbook with him, but he knew that she would miss it and settled for using a spy camera to take pictures of some of the sketches.  He chose the first three of him, Marlene sleeping, and one of Shera holding baby Sydney.  When he finished he retied the strap and placed the book back under Yuffie's diary, then quickly checked the other drawers and moved back to the balcony.  _There's nothing here._

_More to come later!_

_~Rikku~_


	2. A Day At the Beach

For those of you who asked, this is not part of Frank Verderosa's Internet Series.  I was inspired by his series to write this and it is set right after the seventh book(I can't remember the title off the top of my head). Enjoy Chp. 2!

"Miss Yuffie, are you feeling well?" Shake asked slowly.  Yuffie turned to him and gave a half-hearted smile.

            "I'm all right, just a little depressed at the thought of spending more time that I could be working with my materia at one of these stupid meeting sessions.  And, on top of it all, I have to wear a dress." She replied as she looked up at the Costa Del Sol resort hotel.  "I'm sick of traveling to all of these places for simple meetings.  Why can't we just hold them in Wutai?" 

            "I don't know, but I wish we could stay home, too."  They walked into the hotel and Shake went to the desk for their room keys.  Yuffie waited for her 'bodyguard' to return and sifted through her backpack for her small, spiral-bound sketch diary.  She had left her big book at home to conserve packing space, but couldn't stand to be without a little book, not in a place like this.  As soon as she pulled out the book she had spotted her first subject through the window.  Lying on the beach was the familiar face of LaiLi stretched across a beach towel in the sun.

            "Shake, take my things up to my room and give me my spare key.  I'll be up in a little while."  Shake complied and Yuffie stepped out onto the porch to get a better view.  A few yards away from LaiLi she spotted Rude in a pair of swimming trunks splashing at LaiLi in the shallow tide.  Yuffie smiled as she pulled her pencil from behind her ear and opened the sketchbook.  Half an hour later she had completed a portrait of Rude in the surf and turned the page to begin on LaiLi, who hadn't moved the entire time.  She didn't notice the lean, red-headed figure watching her on the steps from the doorway.

            "Hmm…" Yuffie hummed, aloud but mostly to herself.  "If Reno and Elena were here I could have a series called 'Turks in the Surf.'"

            "I don't know about Elena, but you wouldn't get me in my trunks if you gave me a million gil."  Yuffie froze as she heard Reno's familiar sarcastic voice.  She turned slowly to face him.

            "How long have you been there?" she demanded, staring at him and snapping her sketchbook shut.

            "Long enough," he shrugged.  "How long have you been sketching?  Your work is really good."

            "What would you know about my 'work?'  I've never shown anyone.  Not even Shake or Godo."

            Reno stepped towards her, holding out a handful of pictures.  Yuffie took them and flipped through.  They were pictures of her sketches from the book she had left at home.  "Where did you get these?" she cried, near tears.  "What were you doing with my sketchbook?"

            "I found it while I was on a job."

            "On a job?  This book was in my room!  Why would a job send you to my room?"

            "Don't ask me.  I was hired to search your room and properties for any information pertaining to Wutai's economy."

            "Tough cookies, I don't keep that information."

            "I gathered from my search, but I did find those rather lovely sketches and your diary."  Yuffie reached her hand to her chest where a tiger-shaped pendant hung.

            "I want my book back.  And my diary."

            "I didn't take them.  They're still in your desk."

            "Why wouldn't you take them?"

            "It wasn't part of the job to turn in your hobbies.  I was simply instructed to find information." He smirked.  "Now it is my turn to do the questioning.  What are you doing in Costa Del Sol?"

            "Meetings."

            "Really?  While you're here, why don't we have some fun?  Say… tonight at eight?"

            "Not if you paid me.  The last time I went out with you I ended up soaking wet."

            "Yeah, but then your father's little monkey was following us.  As far as I hear, he's going back to Wutai at six and you are to be left here until Saturday."

            "Where did you find that out?"

            "I have my ways.  So, what do you say?  Eight o clock?  Rude and LaiLi will be with us, and I promise you won't end up in a lake."

            "That's only because there aren't any lakes around here.  What the hay, my job is going to be boring anyway so I might as well make it downright miserable." She stood up.  "Where are we going?"

            "It's a surprise, and don't give me that 'I don't trust your surprises' look.  Be ready at eight and wear a dress.  What's your room number?"

            "418, but why do I have to wear…" 

            "All right.  I'll be at your room at eight."  He winked at her before turning around.  "It'll be nice.  I promise."

            "Why do I not trust that?" Yuffie asked herself as she turned to go to her room.

Ooh…cliffhanger.

More later!

Rikku


	3. A Night Out...Cancelled.

At eight o clock, Reno made his way to Yuffie's door, praying she hadn't told Shake that she was going out.  When he reached her door he leaned close in shock.  He could hear someone crying inside.  He knocked tentatively.  

            "Yuffie?"  he asked carefully.  "Are you all right?"  He heard a chocked sob from inside.

            "Reno, I-I'm sorry, but I can't go with you tonight.  I-I don't feel very well."

            "Yuffie let me in."

            "No, I don't feel well enough to go…"

            "This isn't about you going out with me.  It's about what's wrong with you.  I know you're not sick.  Let me in and tell me what's wrong."  There was a hesitation on the other side of the door, then it opened just enough for him to slip through.  Reno heard the door close quietly and he turned to face Yuffie.  His jaw dropped as he looked her over.  She was wearing a beautiful royal purple cocktail dress, but it was torn across the bottom and shoulder.  Yuffie's eye was bruised and her lip was swollen.  The tears were streaming freely down her cheeks.  "Dear God.  What happened?"

            Yuffie cast her eyes to the floor.  "There's this guy from back in Wutai.  Godo wants me to marry him and quit hanging with AVALANCHE…and you.  His name is Ching-wei, but I don't want to marry him.  He's known for drinking too much, even more than you do, and he was married before.  He beat his wife.  She ran off and killed herself because she couldn't take it.  Anyway, I keep going to these meetings out of Wutai to stay away from him, but this time he followed me.  He was watching us when you asked me to go out with you.  He came to my room about forty-five minutes ago while I was getting ready and…and…"

            Without knowing what possessed him, Reno gathered Yuffie in his arms and held her close.  "I'm calling Godo.  If that idiot still thinks you should marry that son of a…" Reno trailed off as he noticed that Yuffie's breathing had become slow and steady.  He pulled himself back from her enough to see that her eyes had shut lazily and she was sleeping peacefully.  He smiled and gently slid one arm under her knees and the other under her shoulders.  Reno lifted Yuffie carefully and carried her to the bed.  He laid her down and pulled the blanket over her, then hesitated.  A moment later he kicked off his shoes and cautiously crawled under the blankets beside her, wrapping his arms around her waist.


	4. Backup

Okay, this one is really short, but I'm having fun!  Thankies to all my reviewers!  At this point I have reached the 20-review mark! *turns on tape recording of applause*  Speaking of reviewers, I will now take this opportunity to thank Auron (the author) because he was the very first to review this fic!  Yay!  I'm loved!

            Reno awoke to the sound of a resonating click.  His eyes shot open.  His arms were still around Yuffie's waist, and someone was holding a gun to his head.

            "Don't move and I won't shoot," a deep voice commanded.

            "May I ask why I am being held at gun point?"

            "You know why!" the voice spat.  "Now take your soiled hands off my wife!"

            "Ah, Ching-wei.  I thought it might be you," Reno crooned coolly.  "Well, as far as I'm concerned, and as far as she tells me she's concerned, Yuffie isn't your wife and doesn't want to be, so I suggest you leave."

            "YOU WILL NOT ATTEMPT TO COMMAND ME!" Ching-wei roared.  "I will take my wife, and if you oppose me I will kill you."

            "I somehow don't think you will," Reno said, seeing what Ching-wei couldn't and turning back to Yuffie's sleeping form.

            "And why is that?" the moment he finished, a shot rang out, and the gun fell from his hands.

            "Thank you, Rude," Reno stated, closing his eyes to return to sleep.  Rude silently escorted Ching-wei from the room, leaving Reno and Yuffie in peace.


End file.
